Documents reveal details in Marine wife murder case

NORTH COUNTY  Brittany Killgore, the young Marine wife whose body was found in a roadside ditch in Riverside County in April, was apparently strangled with some kind of ligature, detectives said in search warrant documents released Wednesday.

Investigators said in the documents that Killgore, who went missing April 13, was likely killed in or around Fallbrook — possibly at the house on East Fallbrook Street shared by three people now accused in her death.

The investigators also said Killgore had injuries on her wrist and leg that were consistent with someone using a tool, such as a saw, in an attempt to dismember her.

Detectives searched the house, where they found what was described in the papers as a sex room or dungeon, as well as a Ford Explorer owned by one of the suspects, Louis Ray Perez, a 45-year-old Camp Pendleton Marine.

Investigators who interviewed Perez shortly after Killgore was reported missing noticed mud caked on the vehicle’s undercarriage as well as on Perez’s shoes. He told them he had been collecting firewood on the Marine base and running on the beach.

Also found in the SUV were an empty lighter fluid bottle and a plastic lighter, as well as a shopping bag containing a stun gun, a bloody plastic bag and blue latex gloves. The blood matched Killgore’s DNA profile.

Along with Perez, two other people — Dorothy Grace Marie Maraglino, 37, and Jessica Lynn Lopez, 25 — have pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the 22-year-old’s death.

Online profiles posted by Maraglino and Perez show that the two practiced sadomasochism and bondage. Maraglino is described online as Perez’s “sex slave.”

Prosecutors have said they have no evidence that suggests Killgore had anything to do with that particular lifestyle. They have stressed that she is an innocent victim.

Just three days before she disappeared, Killgore filed for divorce from her husband, who was deployed to Afghanistan at the time.

Last month, Vista Superior Court Judge Runston Maino ordered the release of some search warrant documents related to the case after several news organizations, including U-T San Diego, asked the court to unseal them.

The District Attorney’s Office and two of the three defense lawyers objected to the request and later filed documents with the state 4th District Court of Appeal asking that the documents remain under seal.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel from the appellate court denied the request.

Attorneys from the Public Defender’s Office, which represents Lopez, had asked that the documents not be released because they contain wording from a suicide note investigators said Lopez wrote before her arrest.

They argued that the information was inflammatory and could have a “chilling effect” on witnesses coming forward. The attorneys said much of the letter is “false and at least misleading and possibly delusional,” according to court documents.

U-T San Diego obtained a copy of the seven-page letter in May.

The letter indicates that it was Lopez — not Perez or Maraglino — who bound and strangled the victim and dumped her body near Lake Skinner in south Riverside County. The letter writer does not refer to either of the two co-defendants by name, but instead makes references to “Master” and “Mistress.”